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Spanish Open Semi Finals - Egyptian Onslaught.

The Spanish Open is being held in a small plaza in the heart of Seville.

It is a beautiful city with spectacular buildings, lovely small cobbled streets lined with balconies, and a ludicrous number of stunning women who painfully don’t speak a word of English. The court is outside and has free public seating on the sides. The third largest cathedral in the world is about a hundred metres behind the court and has a clock tower that chimes regularly. On the right hand wall, right behind the small stand is a narrow cobblestone one-way road. If a tournament is played on a show court in a special enclosed area, like the Boston Symphony Hall for example, the players expect no noise and no movement from the spectators, and usually get it. If the court is in a noisy, busy area the players acknowledge that there will be a lot of distractions and just get on with the job.

I have never heard so much noise and distraction around a court as here in Seville. Throughout the match there were a fairly constant stream of cars, scooters and motorbikes filing past the court. Often a car would stop to see what the hell this weird game in a box was, which would prompt the driver behind to honk their horn impatiently.

Throughout this match Nicol and Darwish played on through countless cars and their horns, continual bell chiming, a Harley Davidson that surely broke some local noise restriction laws, people walking around the court with cameras, an inexperienced crowd that continually left their seats during the match and numerous mobile phones going off. The only noise that bothered Darwish enough that he didn’t serve until it was out of earshot was a horse and buggy. There’s lot of them throughout the town, catering to the many tourists, and the sound of the horse’s hooves on the stones was the only thing that annoyed him.

I didn’t intend writing any match-based stories during this tournament, instead hoping to use the time to see some of Seville’s sights. I knew the semi final match was going to be great viewing and I thought it would be a travesty if tonight’s events didn’t get reported.

Peter Nicol versus Karim Darwish
Darwish had his first major victory over a player ranked in the top 5 at last month’s Qatar Masters, defeating the then #2 Jonathon Power in a dramatic final point shoot out in the fifth set. I saw this as the first time that Darwish really showed that his current ranking of #8 was deserved as he has been able to play lots of medium sized tournaments in Egypt and Pakistan that aren’t attended by the top players, which has given him a seemingly disproportianately strong ranking. If he didn’t convincingly prove that wrong in Qatar, he has rammed the point home tonight. His match against Willstrop in the quarter finals was very entertaining, but both players were playing very open squash with a lot of boasts, drops, counterdrops and nick attempts, but not many good length shots to the back of the court. If you play an open game against Nicol you usually get punished, so I was interested to see how the young Egyptian handled the more formidable opponent.

The first game started normally for Nicol. So often he’ll be playing against someone who is matching him in virtually every area – pace, shot range, movement – and quite often his opponent will be attacking much more and dictating a lot of the pressure, but Nicol will still come away with the point. It often seems like the other player is playing better squash, but unlike Nicol they end up making a mistake to end the rally.

Darwish started out a bit nervously, making four errors. He showed from the onset that he was willing to use a mixture of solid length and attacking squash. He has lovely racquet skills and is particularly good at putting the ball in the nick and using a disguised tickle boast. At 4-7 down in the first game he did such a good backhand tickle boast that it caught Nicol so off guard that he slipped over trying to change direction. And this is a court with a good floor. Nicol led 9-5, but some fancy shooting from Darwish, including a cross court nick off the serve, a backhand straight nick, a forehand held drive that Nicol didn’t see at all, a forehand flick crosscourt, and a backhand cross court drop shot that rolled out of the nick got the score to 11-11. At this point Nicol started attacking more.

Darwish made it clear that he was willing to be patient if he had to and wasn’t going to just play erratic and low percentage squash. Nicol won the next point to go 12-11 ahead. The next rally was a ridiculously hard, gut-wrenching, energy-sapping, lactic acid feast of lunging, scrambling and rallying that must have gone on for about two minutes. It ended in an atrocious refereeing decision that set the tone for most of the night – Darwish was playing two opponents tonight, the world #1, and a referee that had a bad night with decisions, almost exclusively against the Egyptian. He was given a no let on a backhand drive from Nicol that bounced just before the service box, wasn’t particularly fast and bounced high. There was definite interference and my mum would have been able to get to the ball before the second bounce.

Darwish is one of the gaggle of players that use a lot of gamesmanship to get more strokes and lets, and I can only think that the referee was aware of this and being particularly harsh on him because of that. Let/stoke karma perhaps?

Whatever the reason it made an already daunting task for Darwish all the more difficult, but he was up for the challenge. He clawed his way back to 13-13. Both players had done a lot of work by now. This is normally the time when Nicol doesn’t play any rash shots, instead waiting for his opponent to. But if you’re bloody tired it’s much easier to go for an unexpected, low percentage winner. Nicol went for a cross court nick off the serve, which he missed by a long way, instead hitting it high on the side wall. Darwish was onto it quickly and hit a good drop shot. Nicol got to it, but smashed his cross court into the top of the tin giving Darwish game ball. A mishit shot from Darwish that came off the end of his raquet and went for a clean winner ended the first game in the Egyptian´s favour.

GAME TWO
The squash wasn’t as good in the second game because both players who obviously drained from the tough first set. A lot of the points were decided by held shots and flicks that were only possible by the other player being over zealous in trying to read the next shot in an effort to conserve movement and energy. They traded points until 7-7, but then Nicol pulled away easily with Darwish willing to simply watch some balls bounce a second time, whereas he would have hounded them down in the first game. 15-8 to Nicol.

GAME THREE
The third game followed the same pattern as the second, with Darwish not putting in quite the physical effort that he had in the first. Both players still did a lot of work, but it looked like Nicol was going to grind his opponent into the ground as he has done so often throughout his career. At 11-8 to Nicol, Darwish got another bad reffing decision against him. It appeared that he hit Nicol with his racquet as he attempted a forehand drive. He still hit the ball, but it sprayed into the side wall first and came straight back to himself. Nicol was waiting behind him with his racquet ready and the expected stroke. The referee awarded the stroke, which led to a unique situation that I haven’t seen before where both players appropriately thought it was their point.

The complaining and arguing from Darwish once he realised he lost the point didn’t alter the referee’s decision to award the point to Nicol. If Darwish did contact him with his racquet, and it looked like he did to me, it should have been his point. But he had taken a dodgy pickup that looked like a double bounce a couple of points earlier, and these things often even out over the long run. The final point of the third game saw Darwish scrambling for a good length that he was only able to boast. Nicol put in a drop and Darwish was too tired to bother running for it. 15-9 to Nicol.

DRAMA IN GAME FOUR
Darwish started well in the fourth game, taking a 5-1 lead. Nicol seemed to have paid a price for winning the second and third game, finally showing more signs of fatigue as unforced errors began creeping into his game. He stopped the flow of errors and got the score back to 8-8. By this time Darwish had begun to attack more and wasn’t giving up on any balls. A stroke to the Brit (it’s easier than writing English-Scotsman) and a couple of errors by Darwish saw Nicol take a 11-8 lead. Nicol won the next tough, long rally with a well weighted backhand drive. He showed how much winning the match meant to him by screaming out "C’mon" after taking the point. I had to look around to make sure Lleyton Hewitt hadn’t snuck on court. With Nicol leading two games to one and leading 12-8 in the fourth game, any experienced squash follower would say the outcome was fairly certain.

Darwish hit a fairly good boast that Nicol got to, but his drop shop clipped the tin. 12-9. The next point used all four corners of the court. Darwish hit a forehand drop that Nicol lobbed. Darwish had a chance to volley the lob, but it was very high and decided to let it hit the back wall. The lob was weighted too well and Darwish’s attempt to back wall boast failed. 13-9 to Nicol. Darwish by now was doing everything to prevent the game from slipping away. He was chasing everything down and varying his shots and keeping the pressure on. It worked as he forced two errors from Nicol in the next couple of points – a boast that was down and a lob that was out. Two killer drop shots in a row from the Egyptian that Nicol was only just able to get a racquet to set up a simple cross court length winner and brought the score to 13-13. Darwish served to Nicol’s forehand (remembering he’s left handed and Darwish is right handed) who hit a fairly decent cross court. Darwish took a huge lunge and volleyed a straight drop that was ungettable and set up game ball. His low percentage winner turned into an error when he tried to finish the next point off with a drop shot that didn’t work. 14-14.

FOLLOWING IN POWER'S SHOES
If Darwish decides to call set one it gives Nicol a match point – something you don’t want to do. But perhaps Darwish was thinking of his recent success against Power at 14-14, and called set one. The tension in the air was spectacular – match ball to Nicol, game ball to Darwish. The game should have been decided by a fairly straight forward stroke to Darwish after Nicol hit a forehand soft lob over his own head with Darwish standing right behind him with his racquet ready. When the ref said ‘yes let’ the crowd appropriately erupted in boos and jeers. The replayed point should have been won by Nicol who hit shots that deserved to be winners, but Darwish put his body on the line, lunged harder, ran more and scrambled until he hit a drive that was too tight for Nicol, unable to get the ball to the front wall. The crowd erupted in applause and Darwish clenched his fist at the referee who nearly robbed him of a chance to fight out the final game.

DARWISH IN THE FIFTH
Darwish started strongly in the fifth. He was taking advantage of a tiring Nicol, and winning lots of points on tickle boasts that left Nicol looking for the drive or the drop. The Egyptian was going for nicks, especially off the serve, and getting lots of them. He led 9-4, but some good work from Nicol and more bad reffing decision brought the score to 11-11. Nicol tried to volley a backhand drive from Darwish that hugged the wall. It was too tight and the ball didn’t make the front wall. 12-11 to Darwish. At this crucial junction of the match Darwish decided to hit a backhand cross court that couldn’t have been more than a millimetre above the tin. The kind of shot that you normally call a ‘hack shot’ because it is such a hit or miss shot. It worked for Darwish and he went ahead 13-11. He continued going for low percentage shots, choosing to attempt a dropshot from the back forehand corner. It didn’t work. 13-12. Darwish wasn’t perturbed at his missed shot, and played an overhead straight drop to finish the next rally off with a nick that brought up two match balls. Nicol decided to start attacking more at this point and hit a backhand drop shot winner to see off the first match ball against him. The next point was strange. Darwish hit a backhand drive from the T position. It’s second bounce would have landed near the back of the service box. Darwish was in Nicol’s direct line to the ball. It would have been a fairly simple let situation. Nicol attempted to play the ball, clipped shoulders with Darwish, but then continued to try to reach the ball. He realised once he moved past Darwish that the interference was too great and that he should have requested the let, which he did then. But he had already moved past the interference and moved towards hitting the ball, which he obvioulsy wasn’t going to get to now. The referee correctly gave him no let, and Darwish completed the upset and we witnessed a brilliant hour and forty minutes of squash.

Ong Beng Hee versus Amr Shabana

By this time it was 10:45 and I couldn’t resist some tapas at a nearby Spanish restaurant and only returned to the court when Shabana was leading two games to one and 14-11 in the fourth against Ong Beng Hee. He closed out the game and set up an all Egyptian final. Shabana is a wonderful shot maker and even from the final few points I saw of the match he has obviously increased his fitness dramatically. I asked him after the match what has changed. ‘I started training" he said. "It’s been a while since I trained hard, like a couple of years. I started training again and I’ve got the result I wanted."

Obviously being fitter allows him to play a different game rather than just going for winners as he often does. He said "My game plan against Beng Hee was to play tight and play to the corners, he puts the ball away well so I tried to keep the ball away from the middle".

Joe and Simon Parke were trying to work out afterwards what the betting odds would have been before the tournament of Darwish and Shabana being the last men standing. About 10 000 to 1. It’s obviously no coincidence that the weather here is similar to Egypt and the outside court creates hot and humid playing conditions, something Shabana acknowledged helps him. On the bus back to the hotel he was already getting motivated about his upcoming final match against Darwish. Whatever happens Egyptian squash is getting stronger and stronger and we can only hope this leads to the Al Ahram tournament being held at the pyramids again soon.

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